The effect of listener dialect experience on generalization of a novel vowel shift

Abstract

When adapting to novel dialects, listeners rely on the systematicity of novel variants across vowel categories, even when only part of the novel vowel system is presented. I examined how a listener’s dialect experience with components of a novel front lax vowel shift impacts perceptual adaptation and generalization. Three listener groups were exposed to different portions of a novel English dialect with front lax vowel backing. Listener groups varied in their dialect experience: Westerners were experienced with /ɪ ɛ æ/ backing in the California Vowel Shift, Southerners were experienced with parallel movements of /ɪ ɛ/ in the Southern Vowel Shift, and New Englanders were minimally experienced with parallel front lax vowel shifts. Listeners were exposed to either no front lax vowels, /ɪ/, /ɪ æ/, or /ɪ ɛ æ/. Then, listeners completed a lexical decision task for items with /ɪ ɛ æ/, requiring variable amounts of adaptation and generalization by condition. Westerners and New Englanders endorsed more words in the /ɪ æ/ exposure condition than in the /ɪ/ exposure condition, but Southerners endorsed fewer. Southerners’ unfamiliarity with /æ/ shifting may have inhibited adaptation and generalization. A listener’s dialect experience can affect perceptual adaptation to and generalization of a novel dialect.